Top 10 Kansans of 2005

Culture wars, court, corporation figure largely

The culture wars dominated Kansas news in 2005.

Battles over evolution, homosexuality, abortion and more flared with higher-than-usual intensity during the year – a fact reflected in the Journal-World’s first annual list of Top 10 Kansans.

This is a list of who caught our attention during the year. In doing so, they sometimes made a splash on the national scene – and sometimes influenced the way we are educated, live our lives or watch movies.

And we cheated a little, naming a whole court, a corporation and a utility.

Take a look and give us your own top 10.

Kansas Education Commissioner Bob Corkins

Bob Corkins

When Corkins, of Lawrence, was hired by the 6-4 majority on the Kansas State Board of Education as education commissioner, a Senate leader on education said she heard the news on her car radio and nearly ran off the road.

The selection of Corkins, who for years worked as a hired gun providing the talking points for a steady stream of anti-public school rhetoric, prompted sputtering disbelief from key policymakers and galvanized a growing opposition movement to the conservative majority on the board.

Corkins’ appointment seemed to put an exclamation point on one of the most controversial years ever at the State Board of Education – a year that included battles over evolution, private school vouchers, sex education and travel expenses.

Wichita minister Terry Fox

Rev. Terry Fox

The Wichita minister was the force behind the latest addition to the Kansas Constitution: a ban on gay marriages.

Spurned by the Legislature in 2004 in getting a same-sex marriage ban on the ballot, Fox and like-minded ministers worked the campaign trail and helped elect enough legislators to put the constitutional amendment on the ballot in April.

Kansas voters approved it by a 3-1 margin, and Fox started aiming at other issues, including prohibiting gays from adopting. Most state leaders were not interested in that idea, but with televised sermons and a popular radio show, Fox is in the hunt.

author Thomas Frank

Thomas Frank

If you’ve been out of state lately, chances are you’ve been asked to weigh in on Frank’s best-selling book, “What’s the Matter With Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America.”

Frank, a former Kansas University student, argued that today’s conservatives have figured out how to use hot-button issues such as abortion, gun control and homosexuality to elect candidates who, once they’re in office, blindly serve the interests of big business.

“What’s the Matter With Kansas?” spent several weeks on The New York Times best-seller list last summer. It returned to the best-seller list in mid-November as thoroughly trounced Democrats went looking for answers.

Topeka attorney Pedro Irigonegaray

Pedro Irigonegaray

An attorney from Topeka, Irigonegaray was at the center of Kansas’ culture wars while also representing clients in high-profile criminal proceedings.

He and his partner Bob Eye, of Lawrence, unsuccessfully defended Thomas Murray, a Kansas State University professor who was convicted in Douglas County District Court of killing his ex-wife, Carmin Ross.

Irigonegaray also represented mainstream, pro-evolution scientists during State Board of Education hearings in May that trumpeted intelligent design.

Irigonegaray said he clashes with religious fundamentalists to keep religions free of government intrusion.

“The separation of church and state, religion and government, is a fundamental building block of our democracy,” he said.

Kansas Supreme Court

Kansas Supreme Court

The seven-member court rocked Kansas by overturning the death penalty, ruling the school finance system unconstitutional and declaring the state’s sodomy law unfair.

On the issue of school finance, some lawmakers fussed and fumed but eventually complied with the unanimous court order to increase funding. The battle will continue in 2006 with the court retaining oversight of the case, and some legislative leaders calling for measures to rein in the court.

In the sodomy ruling, the court ruled unanimously that the state cannot punish illegal underage sex more harshly if it involves homosexual sex. The stage was set for the decision by a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a Texas law that criminalized gay sex.

On the death penalty, the court split 4-3 in declaring the Kansas law unconstitutional because it favors a sentence of death when juries are considering evidence. Atty. Gen. Phill Kline appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which hasn’t decided the case.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline

Phill Kline

In a case watched nationally, the Kansas attorney general, a vocal opponent of abortion, opened an investigation that sought the records of 90 patients from Dr. George Tiller’s abortion clinic in Wichita and the Overland Park clinic operated by Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri.

Kline said he was investigating allegations of child abuse and illegal late-term abortions.

The clinics accused Kline of going on a fishing expedition, and that the subpoenas for the records would violate patients’ privacy. They have asked the Kansas Supreme Court to block the subpoenas or restrict them.

In addition, Kline filed a lawsuit seeking to end state-financed abortions for Medicaid recipients.

Koch Industries Inc.

The Wichita-based conglomerate made business and political headlines. Koch announced that paper-products giant Georgia-Pacific Corp., the maker of Brawny paper towels and Dixie paper cups, had agreed to be acquired for $13.2 billion in cash.

Koch, with annual revenue of $60 billion from refineries, pipelines and manufacturing, employs 30,000 people and is the second-largest private company in the nation.

On the political front, the Koch family continued to fund numerous anti-tax think tanks. The Kansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity, for example, made a high-profile bus tour pushing for a measure that would limit taxes and state spending.

Marci Penner

Depressed about the downward spiraling signs about rural life in Kansas? Penner is the antidote.

Penner is director of the Kansas Sampler Foundation, which is a nonprofit dedicated to sustaining rural life. Penner also is co-chair of a rural life task force that is working to try to help towns survive and grow.

In 2005, her exuberance about rural life was reflected in a travel guide she published called “Kansas Guidebook for Explorers.”

Westar Energy, whose former CEO, David Wittig, was convicted of looting the company

Westar Energy

There was a time when the state’s largest electric utility made news only when ice storms knocked out power.

In 2005, former chief executive officer David Wittig and former chief strategy officer Douglas Lake were convicted in federal court of engineering huge salaries and benefits for themselves while keeping shareholders, board members and federal regulators in the dark. Just weeks after the September convictions, then-House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, one of the most powerful men in Congress, was indicted on a charge of illegally funneling corporate contributions to several Republican candidates for the Texas Legislature.

The connection with Westar? In an early phase of the investigation, Westar was indicted on a charge of making an illegal contribution to the political action committee formed by DeLay. Westar has denied any impropriety.

Kansas University film professor Kevin Willmott

Kevin Willmott

The art (and commerce) of filmmaking is on the rise in Kansas, and Kevin Willmott is leading the charge.

“We must tell the rest of the country that there are many talented filmmakers here and that the stories that we tell are just as important, if not more so, than those made in Hollywood,” the writer-director says.

The Lawrence resident and Kansas University assistant professor in theatre and film has gained international prominence on the strength of “CSA: The Confederate States of America,” a satirical look at the United States if the Confederacy had won the Civil War and slavery was a mainstay of contemporary society.

“There are clearly a group of people out there who aren’t going to like this,” says the 47-year-old Willmott. “But the reality is that most people are ready for this.”

“CSA” was shot entirely in Kansas and Kansas City, Mo., with a local cast and crew over the course of seven years. It debuted at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival to standing-room crowds, and was soon bought by IFC Films (which released “Fahrenheit 9/11”). The feature has since been released in Europe and a few Southern states, and IFC plans to open it wide in February to correspond with Black History Month.

Entertainment Weekly reviewed the movie last month, giving it an A-minus and calling it a “fearless and brilliant racial-historical satire.”

Willmott proves that though Kansas may be geographically far removed from Hollywood, that gap can be successfully bridged through vision and determination.